


Look Twice, Shoot Once

by Amrynth



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: AU August, Alternate Universe - Angels, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, angel!Percy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25852855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrynth/pseuds/Amrynth
Summary: Vex is out looking for a harpy for the Slayer's Take and accidentally shoots down a celestial instead.  Mistaken Identity?  Or Fateful Encounter??
Relationships: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia
Comments: 12
Kudos: 77





	Look Twice, Shoot Once

**Author's Note:**

> Some spoilers at the end because I strongly suspect I will never come back to this AU. I have so many I want to come back to.

Vex relaxed into the solid mountain that was Trinket, arms behind her head while she gazed contentedly over the treetops. She’d found the perfect point of elevation to overlook most of the woods, heavily lidded eyes keeping a lookout for her mark. The Slayer’s Take had been offering an impressive bounty on a harpy in this area and Vex just needed to find it. As long as no one else was looking very hard, all she had to do was wait for the harpy to come to her. 

Of course, that was the problem. Vax had made a bet he could find and bag the harpy before her. Maybe dozing against Trinket wasn’t the ideal plan if she was going to win the bet. 

WIth an aggrieved sigh, Vex’ahlia pushed herself up from her comfortable position with her bear, all while resenting her brother for making her work for her mark. “Come on, darling, we have a harpy to find. I know you just want to nap and we’re on the same page there.” 

Trinket groaned as he got to his feet, snuffling at Vex’s hands until she gave him enough scritches behind his ears to get him going. 

“Alright, let’s go find that harpy. Help me find a person with wings, Trinket. Do you think you can do that? Let's-” 

She cut off in the middle of scratching Trinket beneath the chin when movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. A flutter of black and white wings like a magpie but far too large for any normal bird in the woods. Vex drew her bow at the same speed she thought of it, arrow knocked and eyes searching the treetops below. There. She found the wings, mostly hidden in the dappled light of the trees. What color were harpy wings anyway? She would check the job but she wasn’t going to let her quarry get away when it had shown itself to her so easily. 

Vex released her arrow and didn’t need to look to know that her aim had been true. She did lean to look and and see where in the woods that striking wing pattern was tumbling to. As soon as she’d marked the location, she and Trinket were making their way down from the rise they’d been napping on. It wouldn’t mean anything if she didn’t have some sort of proof for the Slayer’s Take. She needed to find that body.

“Catch up, okay buddy?” Vex called to Trinket before running ahead on her own. 

There were signs of her prey’s tumble from above, broken branches and scattered feathers. Vex slowed and collected feathers as she went, certain they would make attractive fletching for her arrows. Fetching Fletching, as Scanlan would have put it. Apparently she hadn’t killed the harpy in one shot, as there were indications it had moved deeper into the woods after hitting the ground. 

In the half-lit gloom of the deep forest, Vex spotted the tattered black-and-white shape of the collapsed harpy at the base of a tree. The broken end of an arrow was lodged in its shoulder, through and pinning one of those stunning wings to down, and only when Vex got closer did she realize it was a muscular shoulder. And pulling the figure onto its back, attached to a handsome celestial rather than the harpy she was expecting. 

“Well shit.” Vex frowned and handled him a little more carefully than she had initially. 

He was fair with a shock of white hair stuck to his forehead where it had been matted with blood. She gently smoothed the hair back from his forehead on the pretense of looking for another injury when his eyes fluttered open, blue and unfocussed as he struggled to remain awake. 

“No I have to- I must- he’s coming…” and then fell limp in her arms again. 

“Double shit. Where is that brother of mine when I need him?” Vex groused. 

She took one more quick glance at his face before turning him onto his side to look at the arrow again. 

“I don’t know your name but I’m really sorry about this.” 

Vex grasped the shaft of arrow sticking out from his shoulder to pin his wing against him, and pushed it deeper to bring the barbed head out the front. The celestial in her arms writhed and she had to pin him bodily, thighs locked around his waist as she kept him from escaping her. 

“Look, this is for your own good so stop struggling,” Vex hissed, pushing her hand against the raw wound. 

Although she didn’t have a lot of healing magic, she shoved what she could into his shoulder to knit the muscles back together and heal the skin before infection could set in. When the immediate pain passed, the man stopped struggling beneath her but watched her from the corners of very wide, blue eyes. 

“Hello. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m Vex’ahlia, darling,” she said, still pinning him to the earth. 

He was breathing fast and shallow beneath her and she could feel the tremor of his wings in the muscles of his back beneath one of her legs. Would he be able to overpower her?

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Vex said, put as much of a promise into her voice as she could while silently leaving off ‘again’. “Give me a few minutes to set up my tent and I’ll take a look at the rest of your injuries.” 

“Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III,” he said, the words all running together at the edges until Vex had no idea if he’d been speaking celestial or common or given his name. 

“Well Percy,” she put her hands on his healed shoulder and leaned her chin on them. “Just wait here and keep an eye out for my brother.”

He didn’t immediately answer her, but his eyes flicked in her direction and Vex suspected at least some of what he’d said had been a name. She carefully picked herself up from how she’d been tangled against him, feeling quite aware of the warmth between their bodies. Look at him. Who wouldn’t be aware of that? 

“Oh Trinket darling,” she beamed as her companion arrived, materializing out of the shadows. “See that man there? If he tries to leave, sit on him.” 

And then she left them alone to get a tent set up and maybe to hide her bow and arrows in her bag of holding. Vex put out her sleeping roll and then sniffed it to make sure it wasn’t too rank. It wasn’t every adventure she had time to wash herself let alone her bedroll. But it was fine. She took the time to gather materials and start a small campfire to help Vax in finding her, then returned to where she had left the celestial and Trinket.

The bear was sitting on Percy. Trinket looked quite pleased with himself. Percy looked like a man trapped under an unfamiliar bear. 

“Good boy, such a good boy,” Vex congratulated Trinket, looking down at her very disgruntled guest. 

“You really ought to let me go,” he said, on his back with his wings awkwardly splayed out beneath him. It was hard to look elegant under hundreds of pounds of bear, but he almost managed it. 

“Because he is coming?” Vex asked, sounding casual.

Percy started, squinting in her direction. “How do you know?”

“Because you told me, you doorknob,” she answered. “Alright, up Trinket. But the order stands, if you see him trying to leave, sit on him again.” 

Trinket gruffed his response and ambled to curl ner the fire. 

She held out a hand to Percy, wordlessly offering him help up. There was a beat where he hesitated, then another where his hand hovered halfway to accepting her offer. When he finally grabbed hold, his hands were warm and he had rough, callused fingers she didn’t expect from a celestial. He stumbled on gaining his feet and Vex immediately slung his arm around her shoulder to help guide him toward the tent. 

“What happened anyway?” she asked. Her tone was innocent of having anything to do with arrows in his shoulder or crashing into the trees. 

“You didn’t see my glasses, did you?” he asked. 

Vex turned to look at Percy at the same moment his head turned toward hers. They had almost made the tent and Percy stumbled again. There was a smear of blood on his face and a bruise under one eye but it wasn’t enough to disguise a flush of color across his face now that he was close enough to make her out without his glasses. 

“No darling, no glasses. I can send my brother to take a look if he ever gets here. And you didn’t answer the question, Percy.”

“I can’t stay,” he said. “Something shot me. I think. But it’s- I can’t say his name, or he’ll find us.” 

Tucked with her shoulder under his arm, Vex could actually feel his heart speed up in a panic. She finished hauling him to the tent and carefully lowered Percy onto the bedroll. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to let anything hurt you.” Vex added a wink to this, still close enough Percy wasn’t squinting to make out her face. “Now. Shirt off, I’m going to get water. If you so much as think about leaving, Trinket will sit on you. Again. So don’t try it.”

Percy looked ready to argue before giving in and letting himself collapse completely onto the bedroll. “Vex’ahlia. Right?” 

“That’s right. You can call me Vex but it does mean we’re friends if you do.” She rummaged until she found her waterskin and stepped out into the darkness. 

“Thank you.” Percy’s voice just sounded so tired and his eyes were already drifting closed when Vex looked over her shoulder at him. Barely audible over the sound of trees in the wind, she nearly missed the last word on his lips before he fell asleep. “Vex.”

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers, because I'll never get around to writing more. Percy is worried about Orthax following him and can't say his name without drawing his attention. Also, Vex is ABSOLUTELY going to blame Percy getting shot on her brother because without his glasses Percy didn't get a close enough look at who shot him to know for sure. Vax is pretty good natured about this, actually.


End file.
